So after a whole evening and night of rain, I woke up to sunshine today. I went to the track around noon, and was the first person to enter the track. There was still a bit of standing water on a few curbs bu otherwise a great day to test.
View attachment 24370
Conditions today
27C/80F indicated in cluster on track;
21C/70F indicated by weather app. Rh 60%
Some info on the track
here. It has two straights long enough to reach 200km/h / 120mph or more if you really push it.
Car setup
DSC = off;
MHD stock cooling;
AC = off, heater/blower = off;
Semi-dry oil sump system = on;
DCT oil cooler = on;
Roof = up;
Mods on car relevant to this test;
Around 380whp, GC lites 2.0;
VRSF-style non-HD 7in FMIC;
CSF AT radiator;
Additional custom radiator, 31row, single pass, 620 x 341mm (outer dimensions, incl end tanks), placed in front of AC condenser;
OEM oil thermostat
OEM oil cooler replaced with 15row, single pass, 290 x 210 x 50mm unit. Stock location.
Semi-dry oil sump oil cooler on drivers side (approx same size as OEM oil cooler)
DCT oil cooler placed in front of additional radiator. (So a total of 4 coolers are placed above the FMIC: 1 DCT - 2 Radiator - 3 Condenser - 4 CSF Radiator)
Stock non-M sport Z4 bumber, no mods;
Stock air intake, snorkel removed.
Results
First I did 8mins of warm up, going faster and faster.
datazap.me
Then I did one cool down lap (not logged)
Then 4 hot laps, pushing 80% (consistently braking 100m earlier than normal at the two main braking zones of the track), and one cool down lap:
datazap.me
The logs include both F and C temps. I stopped pushing after the 4th lap, as I was noticing my coolant had reached an equilibrium, never exceeding 106C / 223F.
Conclusions
Now if I compare to this "one hot lap" log, which was done at another track, in 37C / 100F weather:
datazap.me
It is clear that:
- The iat is more or less just following the ambient temp. This makes sense, because it is operating close to ambient temp, and I didn't change power or FMIC. With the 7.5 race FMIC, I think I had 10C lower peak iat, so nothing major.
- It is also clear that peak coolant is lower (107C after many laps vs 118C before after one lap), but it is unknown how much is due to ambient temp and how much is due to the additional radiator. The decrease is somewhat similar to the decrease in ambient temp.
- Transmission temp is a bit lower than coolant, and was also lowered by the same amount as ambient, and I didn't change anything there.
- Engine oil temp is also doing better, but again similar to the decrease in ambient, although the factory location cooler was doubled in size since the 100F log.
So while I am happy I wasn't able to push any temperatures even close to power reduction today, I am still concerned what will happen in 100F weather. I had really hoped coolant would stay below 100C / 210F as demanded by the DME with the additional radiator, but it does sit in front of the other. I am not sure if I should be concerned with 106C / 223F peak coolant on track but let me know your thoughts.